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Those who believe in the plausibility of movie images have long had ideas about how rich people, billionaires, or at least multimillionaires look and behave. Everyone knows that they drive Maybachs and Ferraris, casually glancing at a gold Paté Philippe watch, live in huge palaces, and eat only delicacies, a gram of which is worth the monthly salary of an American programmer.
There is another opinion, the polar opposite, and it consists in the fact that all the rich are rare misers who save on remnants and cigarette butts. The most interesting thing is that both of these ideas are based on real examples. The world is multifaceted, and it all depends on which side you look at it from. The article is devoted to economical rich people.
Thrift or greed?
Very often (though not always) people for whom the purpose of life is to make money become truly rich. This object of passion becomes a fetish, it is worshiped and elevated to the rank of absolute value. In this case, greed is a natural consequence of the main goal, and even sacrifices are made to it. Such rich people save money and try not to spend it.
In other cases, we are talking about savings or the absence of extravagance. A person, having become rich, does not become a slave of the "golden calf", he is not interested in the opinions of others about his lifestyle, and he does not want to impress anyone. Money gives such a person freedom and opportunities for self-realization at a higher level. However, unfortunately, people often confuse these two types of wealthy people. Below are examples of both life approaches, and which of them belongs to which category, let the reader decide for himself.
"The Witch of Wall Street"
Henrietta Howland Green, nee Robinson (1834-1916), is still considered the world's greatest miser. She rightfully deserved this title. Her parents were rich people, they owned a whaling fleet, but the upbringing of the future owner of entire blocks of New York, who invested millions of dollars in profitable projects, was allegedly influenced by her uncle. From the age of six, Henrietta was fond of reading economic textbooks, and at 13 she already worked as an accountant. After the death of her father, she inherited $ 7.5 million - a colossal amount for those times, but continued to make efforts to increase capital. The husband of this, of course, an outstanding woman was a multimillionaire from Vermont, Edward Henry Green.
For all her wealth, the millionaire was pathologically thrifty. The “Witch of Wall Street” (another nickname for her) skimped on the laundry of her only dress, did not use heating and hot water, ate fifteen-cent pies and bought crumbled biscuits to pay less. However, all this can be considered harmless eccentricities compared to the attitude towards his own son, who once broke his leg. The search for a free hospital went on for too long, and when they finally succeeded, the doctors were powerless - the limb had to be removed. Mrs. Green also died, either funny or sinfully, upset about the too expensive milk bought by the servant. But she was a brilliant financier ...
The world's richest Mr Getty
The name of the oil tycoon John Paul Getty (1892-1976) is known not only because he for a long time(until his death) was the richest man in the world, but also because of the story associated with the kidnapping of his grandson in 1973. Coming from an oilman's family of Irish origin, he graduated from Oxford and went on to family business. Getty earned his first million at the age of 24. Then there were the Saudi concessions and many other profitable operations. There were legends about the thriftiness of the multibillionaire. Even in his villa, the telephones were equipped with coin-operated devices.
The story with his grandson became the apogee of his entire biography - when the boy was kidnapped, Getty did not even negotiate, but agreed to them, only having received a fragment of the heir's ear. The auction ended with a six-fold decrease in the amount of the ransom.
Grandson, Paul Getty the Third, received a severe psychological trauma that affected his entire life and ahead of time took him to the grave.
Happy owner of "Niva"
When some comedian on duty once again scolds last words products of the domestic automobile industry, it is not harmful for him to remember that the favorite car of the owner of the Swedish concern Tetra Pak (the largest manufacturer of packaging materials and food equipment), billionaire and holder of many honorary titles, Hans Rausing, is our Niva.
And not some kind of custom-made, but the usual serial, besides, it was not purchased new. At the same time, nothing is known about any other "symptoms" of the seven-time billionaire's excessive frugality. However, one Niva is enough for our motorists to record Rausing as a miser. Well, what if he just likes this car? And everything is Russian...
IKEA owner
The creator and owner of the IKEA retail chain has the same reputation. Ingvar Kamprad is also considered eccentric and tight-fisted, although he simply follows the general philosophy of the business he founded, promoting modesty and rational spending of earned funds.
Yes, he drives an old Volvo, and more often a tram at all, and does not eat in expensive restaurants, sits in a thirty-year-old armchair (it does not fall apart and serves correctly), insists on economical use of stationery and punishes his employees for striving for luxury, but these are not signs of stinginess. Just someone who loves beautiful life", will never be able to successfully trade products with the IKEA brand. Let him go to work at Tiffany or De Beers - they need them there.
Thrifty director
The talented British director and film critic, author of the films Night Aliens, Death Wish, Bullseye!, Dirty Weekend and many other masterpieces, was reproached for excessive thrift, expressed in reusing postal envelopes and picking out the remnants of toothpaste from tubes . Michael Winner (1935-2013), earned $72 million in his career, but that's not the point. He made great films. And as for oddities, these behavioral features are more likely to fall into the category of eccentricities than vices. Let someone do something like that, and only then laugh. If he wants.
A lover of sleeping tea, "worth" 800 million
Successful British real estate dealer Nicholas von Hoogstraten was prosecuted in 2001 for organizing the contract killing of Pakistani businessman Mohammed Sabir Raja. As the investigation seemed to find out, two killers were hired by him, but a year later, thanks to the efforts of lawyers, it turned out that the evidence did not so clearly point to his guilt.
Von Hoogstraten was acquitted and released from custody, but all these criminal details have already been forgotten. But the citizens of the United Kingdom and many foreigners still remember about tea bags, already once brewed, and then dried for re-brewing. This detail of the life of a multimillionaire surfaced by chance during the investigation, and newspapers wrote about it. Von Hoogstraten did not begin to explain to anyone why he saved on tea leaves. This is his own business.
old house owner
Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim Elu started his career saving on everything. His family ate traditional chili with beans, drank instant coffee of the cheapest brands, and all the money they earned was put into circulation. Now that Elu owns retail chains, insurance companies, construction, printing, mining and metallurgical firms, as well as chemical industry enterprises, cement plants and many others for a total of $ 59 billion, then, according to many "experts luxurious life”, he would simply have to live like a real rich man. And he remained a simple man and spends his money not on luxury, but on medicine, culture and education in his native Mexico. In Mexico City, he created a museum in honor of his wife, and 66,000 of its exhibits were purchased by Carlos Elu at his own expense. Will someone turn their tongue to call him greedy? And Elu's car, by the way, is also old, and the house is somehow too modest.
Usually rich people are considered to be greedy people, while in fact poor people are much greedier. A rich person is not greedy, he is prudent and economical, in most cases, while a poor person is wasteful and unscrupulous in his spending, poor people usually spend more than they earn, often finding themselves in debt. According to my observations, I often noticed the difference between the rich and the poor, and I can tell you with confidence that among the poor people, there are many more greedy, monstrously greedy people. The reason for this is primarily the social depression of such people, they feel inferior, deprived, inferior beings compared to others. As a rule, rich people cause them hatred and irritation, and strong envy. Therefore, as soon as such a person has the opportunity to get a little more, he considers this a chance for himself and tries to snatch everything he can.
Such human behavior has always been played and is being played with the aim of using it in one's own interests. The method of bait for such people works perfectly, not having those material goods that others have, the poor person is ready for a lot to take possession of them. And it is completely useless to explain to him that much of what he does not have is completely unnecessary to him. A poor man always thinks that he needs something because he does not have it. So far, no one has succeeded in creating an equal society, in my opinion this is a utopia, at least until the upbringing of a person takes place in more equal conditions. So far, there are no necessary prerequisites for people to have an equally balanced psyche, and without it there will always be people who are morally depressed. Materialism has become for them the only goal in life to which they aspire, and this materialism is nothing more than an idea.
Anything can be such an idea, for example, belief in God, or the idea of building a special society with equal rights. Materialism prevails in our world only because it goes along with the need, and although most of the needs are imposed on people, yet money and material goods are closest to them than anything else. Although, as I said, it’s not about money, it’s only about people who either accept you or not, and if society has a negative attitude towards poor people, oppressing them in every possible way, then the poor person has a desire to be the same as everyone else and even better will manifest itself in greed.
In fact, a person does not need so much to satisfy all his needs, but only those who have this amount necessary for life know about it. Or rather, they do not know, but understand it, all the rest who do not have it, do not even realize that it will not be enough for them always, no matter how much they receive. If a person was hungry in childhood, then with a high degree of probability, he will be obese, or he is too reverent about food. If a person did not have clothes in childhood, and he was forced to wear old and shabby clothes for someone, then he is more likely to become obsessed with buying clothes for himself.
All this is so banal that it has become an iron rule, but not for those who suffer from it. Although there are exceptions, they are familiar to me. Here you just need to pull out all your fears from the subconscious and transfer them to the conscious level. Then a person will understand that what was there is already gone, and in front of him is a completely different life, in which there is no need to stock up on everything that he did not have before. You can’t put on two pants, you can’t eat five meals, you can’t drive three cars at once, so why is all this necessary? Greed, originating precisely from the fear of losing everything and from the fear of not being able to do something. But with such fear and the behavior corresponding to it, a person loses the most important thing, his life.
All my life chasing something, until coffin board, this is not life, and if you happened to be born in a poor family, then use this as an incentive to strive to live with dignity, but do not be greedy for trifles. Greed has never helped, it always keeps pace with stupidity and madness, poisoning life, and sometimes destroying it.
Can you imagine that you are insanely rich? Now imagine that you are also obscenely greedy. What comes out of this - read on ...Studies in the United States show that every fourth American millionaire wears shoes no more than $100, and every tenth paid a maximum of $200 for his suit. Only 50 percent of millionaires are willing to buy a watch more than $240, and only a third of the rich people drive a car that is not yet 3 years old. But real stories millionaire and billionaires that make your hair stand on end.
1. Mother spared money for her son's leg.
One of the biggest misers in the world was Henrietta Howland Green, the brilliant American financier of the 20th century. The woman who left more than $100 million (about $20 billion today) after her death in 1916 heated oatmeal on a radiator because she thought it was too expensive to use the stove. She spent most of her life in the cheapest rented apartments, owning entire blocks in Chicago. And once I spent the whole night looking for a postage stamp for 2 cents.
But the apotheosis of “thrift” was another case: her son had his leg amputated because Henrietta had been looking for a free hospital for three days. At the age of 82, the millionaire had a stroke when she found out that the cook "overpaid" for a bottle of milk.
2. ... and grandfather - for the life of a grandson.
Oil king John Paul Getty, who 30 years ago was considered the richest man in the world with his $4 billion, saved on everything. For example, in his villa, he installed payphones for guests so as not to pay for their calls.
When his grandson John was kidnapped in 1973, his grandfather refused to pay the $17 million ransom. He took pity only when they sent him an envelope with a cut off piece of John's ear. But even here Getty saved money. He gave away only $2.7 million.
3. The financier lives in Khrushchev.
The second rich man on the Forbes list - American financier Warren Buffett (worth - $ 44 billion) - drives around Wall Street on a non-prestigious one in his circle and is far from new car Lincoln Towncar with license plate THRIFTY, meaning "thrifty". Yes, and a small apartment, bought 40 years ago for only 30 thousand dollars, is in no hurry to change.
Buffett is unassuming in life, avoiding luxuries except for a private jet. For example, he eats at a fast food chain that he likes so much that he bought it.
4. Modest "Niva".
The old Morris Minor was driven for a long time by a wealthy Scandinavian - the founder of the Tetra Pak packaging materials company Hans Rausing. However, a couple of years ago, a billionaire (a fortune of over 8 billion dollars) decided to change cars. And he bought ... a 12-year-old Russian Niva. By the way, Rausing also became famous for the fact that he always bargains hard in stores.
5. Business on classmates.
The founder of IKEA and the richest Swede Ingvar Kamprad (his fortune is estimated at $ 28 billion) began his first crown in primary school schools. Buying pencils and erasers in bulk, the future furniture magnate sold them at exorbitant prices to classmates. And saved money. He is known for eating cheap restaurants, flying economy class, taking the bus, and staying in three-star hotels even now. And he spends his vacation with a fishing rod on the bank of some river in his native Sweden.
Ingvar requires his subordinates to use both sides of a sheet of paper. All the furniture in his house is from IKEA, except for "an old armchair and a lovely standing clock." Moreover, Ingvar has been using the same chair for 32 years: “I have been using it for 32 years. My wife thinks that I need a new one because the material is dirty. But other than that, it's just as good as new."
6. Everything is virtual.
The founder of one of the most popular Internet search engines Google, our former compatriot, and now a US citizen, 33-year-old Sergey Brin, earned about $11 billion. But he lives in a small three-room apartment, driving an inexpensive Toyota. And this despite the fact that Google receives money for each visit to an advertising link. The “wrong billionaire” has neither yachts nor villas. He doesn't even own a super sports car. Sergey is rumored to drive a Prius, a discreet but environmentally friendly Toyota that runs on electricity as well as gasoline. Like many other Google executives, he often roller skates to work and plays roller hockey in the parking lot during breaks. They say that he still often visits the numerous Russian restaurants in San Francisco, in particular, "Katina tea".
7. Greedy stars.
Millions in income does not prevent some show business stars from being very careful about everything related to everyday expenses. Yes, the beautiful half star couple The Beckhams, former lead singer of the Spice Girls pop group Victoria Beckham, were seen more than once on a tram heading towards the stadium in Manchester, where her husband was then playing. It is known that Mrs. Beckham, whose personal fortune is $ 18 million, has a soft spot for cheap German wine Blue Nun, which she regularly buys at a local supermarket, and buys casual clothes not from Christian Dior or Versace, but from the discount store Matalan and considers her own. favorite clothing store is far from being the most fashionable Top Shop.
Renowned filmmaker Michael Winner, who has earned $72 million from a successful commercial career, sometimes allows himself a $6,000 bottle of wine, which doesn’t stop him from reusing old postal envelopes and cutting tubes of toothpaste in half so that not a drop of valuable product is lost.
Pop star Madonna, who has earned $ 150 million in her brilliant career, is also used to counting every penny. She regularly checks the phone bills that come into her Kensington mansion and deducts phone charges from the servants' pay.
8. Image is nothing - thirst is everything!
A few years ago, British millionaire Nicholas von Hoogstraten (net worth about $800 million) was imprisoned for ten years for the murder of a companion. And the police, who were doing a search in Hoogstraten's house, told the newspapers about unusual find. In the kitchen of a rich man, deposits of used tea bags were found. He dried them, and then brewed tea again. A year later, however, the millionaire was released. However, the opinion of him as a terrible miser, if it changes, will not be soon.
9. Marry at least a dog.
23-year-old American actress Wendy Dorcas has jumped out to marry millionaire film director Roger Dorcas. He was almost three times older than Wendy, and the actress hoped that over time, her husband's millions would transfer to her account. In a year family life Roger died suddenly. But when the lawyers read out his will, Wendy was not furious: she inherited ... 1 cent. Everything else (and this is 64 million dollars), the director bequeathed ... to his dog Maximilian.
The court took the side of the dog, but the actress found a way to keep millions for herself - she ... married Maximilian. It turned out that when Dorcas opened an account for a dog, he had to register the dog as a US citizen in order to pay the necessary taxes. The marriage of the actress with the dog was even registered - the dog's papers were in order. And when Maximilian died, the "widow" inherited all his wealth.
Everyone knows that there is a clear double standard between the rich and the poor. Approximately the same as for women and men. The rich are credited with quirks, malice and immoral lifestyles. The poor are presented as honest fellows who enjoy earning their living by honest work. Moreover, we somehow forget that sometimes the rich show themselves from a very profitable side, but the poor, on the contrary, do SUCH things that make the hair of the rich move. Perhaps this morality appeared so that people would not worry about their financial condition, but limited themselves abstract concepts"spirituality". There are quite a few such moral fallacies. Here is some of them.
1. The rich are evil greedy bastards
Plenty of classic novels and the movie Titanic assure us that rich people are selfish, evil, greedy individuals. Even the Bible assures us that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
If you need more anti-evidence, go Google for stories like "employee charitable foundation jailed for embezzlement." Absolutely money does not corrupt. Of course, we hear a lot of stories about politicians who receive large bribes and then sit in prison for meager terms. Of course, they have the opportunity to pay off. Because they are rich. Then they do some nasty things again. And all because... because they can.
If someone in the world at once made all the money in the world disappear, people would quickly find new way quality exchange. For example, boobs. People with a wormhole will strive for these resources and for power, in fact, that's why there are a lot of them: there are a lot of opportunities. By the way, think about corruption in other places where there is no great wealth. For example, at school, at universities, in small offices. Money doesn't make people who they are, they just are who they are! In many countries, in ours, for example, the desire for wealth is regarded as the desire for something bad. You will definitely be told that money is not the main thing. But you cannot strive for money, for example, you can strive for the realization of opportunities. But everyone still don't care again.
2. Demand repayment of debts - low
Imagine that you are in debt, like in silks. You have nothing to pay for an apartment, for a loan, and even food to buy nothing. At any moment bailiffs can come and describe your property. And they will be absolutely right, because you owe them. They gave you some kind of trust or money loan, and you let them down. Of course they want their hard-earned money back. I hope you will not argue that this is allegedly unfair.
So why should we feel guilty when we demand the repayment of debts from our friends or relatives? After all, we also gave them money, we gave them a credit of trust, but they can’t return it for a year. And we even somehow stsykotno talk about it. They may think that money is important to us, and this is not good. You can demand a bank - a bank is a bank for that! But to demand three thousand from your friend is somehow low. In addition, these people may be indignant and say: “Did bro hold the money to his bro?” And they will look at you so disapprovingly. And somehow you don't want to lose your friend. Even though my friends don't do that.
3. Asking for help is bad.
My friend had a mother-in-law who constantly brought some nonsense to his house. Either a hundred eggs, or a couple of eggplants, or a little meat. But when they asked her for help, she literally went crazy. And the situation is clear. When you do a lot for someone, you want something in return. But here's what you definitely don't want: you don't want to be asked for something ELSE. You immediately feel worthless. She did everything for you, she brings so many things, and I ... I asked her for help, of course, she could refuse me! Woe, woe is me! You feel like an irresponsible person who needs outside intervention.
The problem is that our main weakness is pride. Pride makes us not accept handouts from people, so as not to be indebted to them and feel our independence. But pride can lead to the most unpleasant: to death. You literally lose all your money, your job, your girlfriend, but you can’t accept a couple of extra thousand from your mother. You are forced to sit on a doshirak and without the Internet. You may well die, but you don't want to accept help. But then you can always repay your debt!
4. "No" to asking for help makes you an asshole.
If one of our family members lacks money, we can of course give them money. This is fine. But not when we have no money. If we have a thousand rubles in our pocket, our brother comes to us, and we give him this money, because “he needs it,” we act stupidly. Because tomorrow we will have to eat horseradish with salt. If you have a family that is this moment does not have enough money, and someone from your family asks you for a loan with such a look: “You don’t care more money than mine," don't lend to them because you're putting your family at risk.
Worst of all, some members of your family, when you reach a more or less influential position, will come and literally demand from you to give their children a place in your company. You can give a place for practice, but here workplace, for which you will pay money into the pocket of an idler, this is somehow unreasonable. But for some reason we do it anyway. Paradox, right?
We think that Bill Gates refused people more than once. However, there is a slightly different mentality, and we should not forget that he donated decent money to charity.
